Scott worked out a couple ways to improve the efficiency:
1- Adding an air supply to support secondary combustion. This improves combustion efficiency and heat output, and reduces pollution.
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| The added air supply to support secondary combustion. |
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| New piping to supply preheated air for secondary combustion near the top of the firebox. |
2 - Retrofitting a catalytic combustor which goes into the flue to burn the remaining burnable stuff in the smoke. This also improves the combustion efficiency and heat output, and further reduces pollution.
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| Close up of the catalytic combustor (on right) and the bypass damper to allow the cat to be bypassed. |
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| Shows the new catalytic combustor installed just above the stove in the flue. |
Scott provides a lot of detail on how he built the two devices and also goes through a nice, simple and inexpensive way to measure wood burner efficiency with just an anemometer and a thermometer.
All the details on Scott's wood burner efficiency project...
More projects and information on wood burners and biofuels...
Gary